Mundane Adventures
by TacoRaven
Summary: College AU. Mundane (college) adventures of Captain, Snippy, Pilot, and Engie. Content is better than the summary, I promise.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: No idea what got into me for this one. I haven't written fanfiction in a few months now, and a RomAc college AU was definitely what I was expecting to kick me back towards non-required writing. _

_Sorry-not-sorry? Anyways. _

* * *

The knock on the door was neither welcome or unexpected.

"What is it?" he snapped, sleep attempting to reclaim its feeble grasp on his already exhausted mind.

"Breakfast is almost over, Snippy!" It was the all-too-familiar voice of his fellow Residential Advisor who, as far as he had been able to discern, had the unfortunate name of Captain Seven. Most people called him Captain, yet he called few people by their first names.

No one seemed to know where he was from – or anything else about him for that matter – and any attempts at learning anything about him ended in frustration and, somehow, having even more questions than before.

"Okay," Charles grumbled, settling back into his mattress to let sleep reclaim him.

That lasted a few seconds.

"Snippy, you need ze nourishment to grow big and strong!"

Charles groaned and buried his head under his pillow, long since having given up attempting to discern if something was wrong with Captain or if the other young man was genuinely that friendly and caring.

"I'll eat lunch," Charles managed in reply.

"Ov course you will!"

Charles heard Captain's boots retreating down the hallway. He sighed heavily and rolled onto his back, keeping his eyes closed.

He had been an insomniac as long as he could remember, so taking overnight RA duty and napping didn't sound like it would change much. Not only had he underestimated his fellow dorm residents' ability to get themselves into situations that involved RA intervention between the hours of 10pm and 6am, but he had not met the RA who had agreed to take the morning shift.

It was only nine weeks into his junior year, and the enigmatic senior had already become all but the bane of his existence.

Not that he hated the man by any stretch of the imagination. His fellow RA was, in sum, overly helpful. Every morning, Charles was reminded to eat breakfast. Captain brought him lunch every day before he ran to class. How Charles was unsure, as he was confident Captain never left the dorm during his shift. He had to admit that without Captain's efforts, his diet would be far more questionable.

Additionally, RAs were encouraged to "be visible" either on their dorm floors or around campus when they weren't on-duty. The evening RA was rarely to be seen, claiming either class or sleep when someone tried to speak with him off-duty. Charles envied the man sometimes, but he needed the free room and board, so he spent most of his evenings in the floor lounge area.

Captain, for his part, had become a central part of both the dorm's atmosphere and Charles' life.

As sleep reclaimed Charles once more, his last semi-conscious thoughts were spent lamenting the short amount of time that would pass before his alarm went off.

* * *

The day had passed quickly, as most days did. The communal clock told Charles it was already 7:30. The evening RA was in his room, only the "ON DUTY" sign taped to his door indicating he still cared that he was, in fact, an RA.

Captain had returned from his classes maybe two hours ago, and had since made himself at home with a few books in the floor lounge. Charles curled himself around his laptop attempting to focus on the paper he was supposed to be writing. But he knew what 7:30 meant.

"Captaaaiiiiiinnnnnn!" a voice squealed as a black-clad body came flying out of the elevator. The teenager the voice was attached to looked as if he had just finished running a marathon and then ran home to, well, talk about it. Minus the sweat, thankfully.

"Well hello, mien leetle Pilot!" Captain returned the greeting.

Christophorus Pi Hatchenson, an Air Force ROTC student, was another semi-permanent evening fixture in the lounge. Charles swore he ran from training back to the dorm every day. His eyes were always the type of wild one only achieves through excess physical exertion. Most people called him Chris, but Captain indulged the seemingly mentally unstable man and his obsessions with all metal things that could fly by calling him "Pilot." Charles would admit to himself – but never aloud – that such indulgences probably did wonders for the freshman's psyche. At the very least, the lanky blonde had someone to talk to. Or at. Charles couldn't tell. And besides, Captain seemed to greatly enjoy Chris' attention.

The two had already become engaged in conversation that was one part excited (Chris' part) and one part pseudo-mentor (Captain's part.) Charles tried his best to tune them out.

"You okay there?" Charles heard a third voice above the chatter, but ignored it.

"Are you alright, Charles?" the voice asked again.

"Bwah!" Charles startled this time. Being directly addressed always startled him. He blamed lack of sleep and the night shift. Charles turned to face the voice. It was Alexander Gromov, a senior majoring in something related to computers, if he recalled correctly.

"I'm fine, Alexander," Charles told the other man, trying to keep confusion out of his voice.

"If you're sure. And you can call me Alex," Alex shrugged and sat down on the other end of the Couch Charles was on.

"I'm positive, Alex," Charles assured him.

"You're curled around your laptop as if you were warming up for some sort of contortionist trials," Alex pointed in Charles' general direction.

Charles surveyed himself briefly before responding, "I guess so."

The two of them lapsed into silence, but Captain and Chris' conversation more than enough to keep silence out of the room.

"What brings you out here?" Charles finally asked Alex, keeping his voice low enough as to not disturb the other two. Not that he was convinced he could, but he knew Alex was the polar opposite of both Captain and Pilot, somehow.

"My roommate has a tie on the door," Alex grimaced.

"Ah," was all Charles said.

The first time he had become acquainted with Alex was while he was the on-duty RA. The senior had been in a panic about finding enough hand sanitized and Lysol to disinfect his shared dorm room. When Charles asked why, Alex had gone into a long-winded rant about how unclean the dorm room had been and how he wasn't sure what 'they' had touched.

_"Wait, who's they?"_ Charles had cut him off, concerned about the sudden conversational appearance of other people.

_"My roommate and…whoever he brought home!" _

As it had turned out, Alex was either terrified of germs, sex, or both, and he wanted to clean down his entire half of the dorm room. Just in case they had intruded on his space. Charles had wanted to laugh, but the sheer panic Alex had been displaying reminded him to at least close the door first.

Silence took over half of the lounge occupants again. Out of the corner of his eye, Charles could see Alex was fascinated by the Captain-Pilot dynamic.

"So…what's going on over there?" Alex asked, his voice even quieter than Charles' had been.

"A conversation, I think."

"I mean…is that…hero-worship? Friendship? Flirting?"

Charles laughed before he realized he was laughing.

'Shit,' he thought, uncurling himself to sit upright. 'There goes my ability to work on this paper.'

Captain held up a hand to silence Chris, who obliged. "Ah, zey do make sounds outside ov zere own leetle worlds!"

"On occasion," Charles conceded on Alex's behalf. The other man looked panicked. Charles had gathered that whatever he did with computers had to be absolutely breathtaking if it got him this far. Or, at the very least, had removed him from all social interactions for the last several years.

"Sharing is caring!" Chris chirped. Charles looked over the youngest of the four, really noticing him for the first time. He seemed almost too young to be in college. He had vibrant green eyes and the color only enhanced the permanently wild look etched into the teen's face. His lanky frame was all muscle, so perhaps he was as active as Charles had assumed.

"Alex here is learning about the finer points of social interactions," Charles explained. Alex glared at him. Charles was pretty sure Alex would have elbowed him had they been close enough. As long as elbowing someone didn't count as things that sparked a run for a bottle of disinfectant, anyway.

"Ah, very good! Zen we can teach you, good sit Alex!" Alex looked to Charles for a way out, but Charles just curled back around his laptop. Alex swore the nighttime RA was chuckling.

'_It's still a long way to ten,'_ Charles thought, allowing the "lessons" Captain was imparting onto Alex to fade into white noise.

* * *

_A/N: I can't decide if this should be a one-shot or if I should do more. Feedback is always appreciated. :D_


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Chapter two? Chapter two. :D

Charles closed his textbook, the sound of the pages snapping together and a sigh of relief blending together into a single sound.

"Snippy!" Chris exclaimed, "You've joined us for the weekend!"

The teen had taken up Captain's habit of calling the exhausted RA by his last name.

"Yes, Chris," Charles sighed, "the weekend has started." It was technically still Friday, but the RAs' weekend started when Charles' shift would have normally started. No one knew exactly why residents were left to their own devices on weekends, but Charles didn't mind.

"PARTY TIME!" Chris squealed.

"Bwah?" Charles startled. "Party?"

"Ov course a party!" Captain stepped into the common area, "Ees Pilot's nineteenth birthday tomorrow! So we must party until zee morning to geeve heem a vonderful birthday!"

"Of course…" Charles trailed off. The thought of a party didn't sound appealing, but neither did staying in and doing nothing for the weekend. Again.

"So," Captain continued, either not registering Charles' hesitancy or ignoring it altogether, "ve vill go on an adventure most befitting of zees young pilot's nineteenth voyage around ze sun!"

"Adventure?" Charles felt like a dumb, barely animate parrot. Lack of sleep, stress, and the silent acceptance of his weekend's fate rendered him temporarily incapable of independent thought.

"Across town, ov course!" Captain said, "Silly Snippy, vhere else vould ve go? Zees campus haz nothing befitting ov such an occasion!"

"And we'll have fun allllll night~" Chris added.

"All night. Of course. Because your birthday is tomorrow," Charles nodded, assuming that Captain was the type of friend who would go out of his way to make someone feel extra-special. For two days. Because that was the type of thing that would make Chris beyond happy.

"You remembered!" Chris squealed, going in for a hug.

Under normal circumstances, hugs from the freshman weren't much of an event if you could ignore the bone-crushing enthusiasm behind them. But this hug. Man, this one was a flying hug.

The teen hit Charles shoulder-first. Charles wasn't sure how, but the lithe young man had managed to pin him to the couch in his signature, crushing embrace. Charles' books scattered across the coffee table and floor.

""I knew you were an awesome friend!" Chris told Charles as he stood up. Despite the pain, Charles smiled.

"Come, mien Pilot, let us get you dressed for zee night!" Captain signaled for Chris to follow him. The two trotted off towards Chris' dorm.

Charles sighed. He wasn't exactly a social person. He had become an RA knowing it was normal for RAs to be avoided. But he had friends now and, no matter how strange he found them, they were still his friends.

"A party, eh?" Alex's voice pulled Charles from his mild reverie.

"I guess," Charles shrugged, moving to recollect his books. Alex stooped down to help him with the task.

"I feel a little sorry for you," Alex said, attempting to convey some sympathy.

"Only a little?" Charles asked, sighing.

Before Alex could respond, they heard Captain's boots coming down the hall.

"Oh, Snippy, I almost forgot…ALEX! So good ov you to show up. Now vee vill have four people to help Pilot celebrate hees most vondervul birthday!" Captain clapped Alex on the shoulder. Alex flinched a little bit from the force. Before Alex could respond, Captain trotted back to Chris' dorm. "Be reedy at nine!" he called over his shoulder.

"I wonder what he forgot to tell me," Charles shook his head, "Or maybe he ACTUALLY forgot you."

"I don't feel sorry for you at all anymore." Alex grumbled, handing Charles the last of his papers.

Charles laughed, "Well, the worst that could happen is we walk around for a few hours. Or we go on a scavenger hunt. Either way, we have about an hour until we need to get going."

"I didn't think anything was open that late in town."

"You mean after midnight on a Friday? Some bars, maybe, but none of us are old enough to drink. Well, except maybe Captain, but who knows how old he is," Charles shrugged.

Alex glanced down the hallway towards his dorm room. "A tie on the door AGAIN? This early?" he whined.

"Apparently," Charles confirmed. "If he keeps barring you from your dorm, you might want to see about transferring to a singles room. Since it's a well-documented roommate issue, you won't be charged extra."

"You're working again."

"I'm always working," Charles stated." If you want to keep your bag in my room until we get back from where ever we're going, feel free."

"Thanks," Alex smiled a little bit, "I didn't really feel like tossing my bag into that. What if it landed on them?" He cringed. Charles bit back a laugh.

"C'mon," Charles motioned for Alex to follow him.

After assuring themselves their stuff was safe, they resumed sitting around in the lounge, waiting for Chris and Captain to show back up.

"Do you think they got swallowed by Chris' dorm or something?" Alex asked, looking at the clock. It was already after nine, and there had been no sign of either of the other two.

Charles looked in the general direction of Chris' dorm, "I hope not."

"Should we have changed clothes?" Alex was

"Probably not," Charles shrugged.

"Is 'not' your new favorite word or something?" Alex made a feeble attempt to tease the RA.

""It is not," Charles replied without missing a beat.

Alex stared at the other man for a moment before he burst out laughing. Charles allowed himself a self-congratulating grin.

They heard a door open in the direction they were expecting the other half of their party. Sure enough, Chris came bounding down the halls with Captain not far behind him.

"He's wearing jeans," Charles muttered.

"Who know he had anything besides black in his wardrobe," Alex shook his head, "He looks…more sane, somehow."

"That's because a blur of color coming at you always seems less dangerous than a living shadow," Charles sighed.

The teen stopped a few feet from where they were sitting, grinning like mad.

"Captain found my jeans!" Chris beamed

"They were lost?" Charles asked

"Ze eeveel wardrove tries eets best to steal young Pilot's blue jeans, but ve prevailed in zees valiant effort!" Captain explained.

"I, uh, right," Charles resigned himself to a night of strange things and stranger words, "So, where are we headed?"

"Zees vay!" Captain boomed, walking off.

Pilot trotted off after the older man, leaving Charles and Alex to take the cue to follow.

"Where _are_ we going?" Alex whispered to Charles as they stood up.

"I don't think they know, either, honestly."

A/N: I am so sorry that this not only took forever, but is short. D: I've had horrid writer's block. Next chapter will be more exciting, once I manage to type some life into it – it's rather flat and dead-looking at the moment.


End file.
